Letters on England eBook

LETTER VI.—­ON THE PRESBYTERIANS

The Church of England is confined almost to the kingdom
whence it received its name, and to Ireland, for Presbyterianism
is the established religion in Scotland. This
Presbyterianism is directly the same with Calvinism,
as it was established in France, and is now professed
at Geneva. As the priests of this sect receive
but very inconsiderable stipends from their churches,
and consequently cannot emulate the splendid luxury
of bishops, they exclaim very naturally against honours
which they can never attain to. Figure to yourself
the haughty Diogenes trampling under foot the pride
of Plato. The Scotch Presbyterians are not very
unlike that proud though tattered reasoner. Diogenes
did not use Alexander half so impertinently as these
treated King Charles II.; for when they took up arms
in his cause in opposition to Oliver, who had deceived
them, they forced that poor monarch to undergo the
hearing of three or four sermons every day, would
not suffer him to play, reduced him to a state of
penitence and mortification, so that Charles soon grew
sick of these pedants, and accordingly eloped from
them with as much joy as a youth does from school.

A Church of England minister appears as another Cato
in presence of a juvenile, sprightly French graduate,
who bawls for a whole morning together in the divinity
schools, and hums a song in chorus with ladies in
the evening; but this Cato is a very spark when before
a Scotch Presbyterian. The latter affects a
serious gait, puts on a sour look, wears a vastly
broad-brimmed hat and a long cloak over a very short
coat, preaches through the nose, and gives the name
of the whore of Babylon to all churches where the
ministers are so fortunate as to enjoy an annual revenue
of five or six thousand pounds, and where the people
are weak enough to suffer this, and to give them the
titles of my lord, your lordship, or your eminence.

These gentlemen, who have also some churches in England,
introduced there the mode of grave and severe exhortations.
To them is owing the sanctification of Sunday in
the three kingdoms. People are there forbidden
to work or take any recreation on that day, in which
the severity is twice as great as that of the Romish
Church. No operas, plays, or concerts are allowed
in London on Sundays, and even cards are so expressly
forbidden that none but persons of quality, and those
we call the genteel, play on that day; the rest of
the nation go either to church, to the tavern, or
to see their mistresses.

Though the Episcopal and Presbyterian sects are the
two prevailing ones in Great Britain, yet all others
are very welcome to come and settle in it, and live
very sociably together, though most of their preachers
hate one another almost as cordially as a Jansenist
damns a Jesuit.

Take a view of the Royal Exchange in London, a place
more venerable than many courts of justice, where
the representatives of all nations meet for the benefit
of mankind. There the Jew, the Mahometan, and
the Christian transact together, as though they all
professed the same religion, and give the name of
infidel to none but bankrupts. There the Presbyterian
confides in the Anabaptist, and the Churchman depends
on the Quaker’s word.